Launch Roundup: China to launch crew to Tiangong, India to launch new naval satellite
Six missions comprise the worldwide launch manifest this week, including a crewed launch from China and a new naval satellite for the Indian Navy. SpaceX is set to kick off the week with three back-to-back Starlink missions from its pads in California and Florida.
Later in the week, China will launch the crewed Shenzhou 21 mission to the Tiangong space station with three new taikonauts onboard. On Sunday, SpaceX plans to launch a rideshare Bandwagon mission before India launches its LVM-3 rocket and GSAT-7R satellite to geostationary transfer orbit.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-21
The first of three Starlink missions this week, Starlink Group 11-21, launched on Monday, Oct. 27, at 5:43 PM PDT (00:43 UTC on Tuesday, Oct. 28). Falcon 9, carrying a batch of 28 Starlink v2 Mini satellites, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The booster supporting this mission was B1082, launching for its 17th time after a 32-day turnaround. B1082 previously flew the USSF-62, OneWeb #20, and NROL-145 missions, as well as 13 Starlink missions. This mission also broke the turnaround record for SLC-4E, just two launches after the previous record was set. The pad’s new turnaround record is now 2 days, 10 hours, 22 minutes, and 59 seconds, beating the previous one by eight and a half hours.
Following liftoff, ascent, and stage separation, B1082 returned to Earth and landed successfully atop SpaceX’s autonomous droneshipOf Course I Still Love You, which was stationed downrange in the Pacific Ocean. Falcon 9 flew on a southeastern trajectory, ultimately deploying the satellites into a low-Earth orbit (LEO) inclined 53.16 degrees.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-37
The Starlink Group 10-27 mission launched on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 12:35 PM EDT (16:35 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida. Falcon 9 and its 29 Starlink v2 Mini satellites flew on a northeastern trajectory into the constellation’s Group 10 shell in LEO.
Booster B1083 flew for the 15th time after previously launching the Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31, Astranis: From One to Many, Nova C, IM-2, and Dror-1 missions. It has also lofted eight Starlink missions.
SpaceX’s droneshipJust Read the Instructions was stationed downrange in the Atlantic for B1083 to land on following launch.
Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 11-23
The third and final scheduled Starlink mission of the week, Starlink Group 11-23, launched from SLC-4E at Vandenberg on Friday, Oct. 31, at 1:41 PM PDT (20:41 UTC). As with the earlier Group 11-21 mission, 28 Starlink v2 Mini satellites were launched into a 53.16-degree-inclination LEO.
Falcon booster B1063 supported the mission, flying on its 29th mission after a 32-day turnaround. The booster flew for the first time in November 2020, and of the 29 missions B1063 has flown, 19 are Starlink missions. B1063’s non-Starlink missions include Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich, DART, Transporter 7, Iridium-9 & OneWeb #19, Transport & Tracking Layer Tranche 0B, NROL-113, NROL-167, NROL-149, and NAOS.
After launch and stage separation, the booster landed atopOf Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Chang Zheng 2F/G | Shenzhou 21
China’s Tiangong space station is set to receive three new taikonauts from the Shenzhou 21 mission, which launched on Friday, Oct. 31, at 15:44 UTC from Site 901 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. The three taikonauts and their Shenzhou capsule launched atop a Chang Zheng 2F/G (CZ-2F/G).
The three crew members launching on Shenzhou 21 are currently unknown, although their selections were finalized in February. The names of the taikonauts are expected to be released approximately 24 hours before launch. Their Shenzhou spacecraft, whose design is closely based on Russia’s Soyuz, massed roughly 8,100 kg at launch.
Shenzhou 21 rolls out for launch. (Credit: Xinhua News)
The CZ-2F/G, also known as the Long March 2F/G, is a human-rated two-stage variant of the Chang Zheng 2E rocket. Standing 62 m tall and 3.35 m in diameter, the CZ-2F/G utilizes four liquid-fueled boosters with YF-20B engines, four YF-20B engines on the first stage, and one YF-24B engine on the second stage. Both stages and the boosters use highly storable but toxic nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) propellants. Since its first flight in 1999, the CZ-2F family has seen a 100% success rate through 25 missions.
This mission marked the 16th Chinese human spaceflight mission and the 10th crewed mission to Tiangong. Furthermore, Shenzhou 21 marked the 26th CZ-2F mission and the second CZ-2F/G mission of 2025.
The final Falcon 9 mission of the week was the rideshare Bandwagon-4 mission, launching from SLC-40 at CCSFS in Florida. Liftoff occurred near the start of an hour-long launch window at 1:09 AM EDT (05:09 UTC) on Sunday, Nov. 2.
SpaceX’s Bandwagon missions, along with Transporter missions, are a part of the company’s SmallSat Rideshare Program, which enables satellite operators to launch spacecraft on dedicated rideshare missions atop Falcon 9 for lower prices. Bandwagon missions are specifically designed to allow rideshare customers to deploy their payloads to mid-inclination orbits. As the name suggests, this mission is the fourth Bandwagon mission, with the first launching in April 2024.
Neither the exact number of payloads nor a list of payloads has been released. Some confirmed payloads include a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite for South Korea’s 425 Project, CevroSat-1 from Czechia, four Taurus satellites, and more. What’s more, satellite deployment company Exolaunch is set to deploy 13 payloads on Bandwagon-4. More details on payloads will likely be released as launch approaches.
The booster supporting this mission is B1091. Following launch and stage separation, the booster performed a return-to-launch-site landing and landed atop a concrete pad at Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2) at CCSFS. This touchdown could mark the final landing on this pad before SpaceX moves RTLS recovery operations to new landing zones currently under construction at its launch complexes.
This mission marked the 140th Falcon 9 mission of 2025, the 558th overall Falcon 9 mission, and SpaceX’s 585th mission of all time.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is scheduled to launch the CMS-03 mission atop its Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) rocket on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 11:56 UTC. LVM-3 will lift off from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India on an eastern trajectory, deploying the satellite payload to a geostationary transfer orbit.
LVM-3 launches the Chandrayaan-3 mission in July 2023. (Credit: ISRO)
The payload on this mission is the GSAT-7R satellite, specifically designed for the Indian Navy as a replacement for the GSAT-7 Rukmini satellite that launched in 2013. Massing 4,400 kg, GSAT-7R features many upgraded payloads and capabilities, including more secure multi-band communications. The new satellite will improve and strengthen the Indian Navy’s warfare capabilities and operational reach across maritime domains.
The LVM-3, previously known as the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III), is a medium-lift rocket designed to launch communication satellites into geostationary orbit. Standing 43.43 m tall and four meters in diameter, the three-stage rocket utilizes two strap-on solid rocket boosters on the first stage, two Vikas engines on the second stage, and a single CE-20 engine on the third stage. The second stage Vikas engines burn N2O4 and UDMH propellants, while the third stage’s CE-20 engine uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
All seven missions the LVM-3 has flown since 2014 have been successful. This mission will mark the eighth LVM-3 mission, the first of 2025, and ISRO’s 100th mission overall. Furthermore, this mission will be the 254th orbital launch attempt worldwide in 2025.
(Lead image: Falcon 9 launches from Florida. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)
